


S.M., A.P., & R.W.

by pineapple_fineapple



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: I'm not tagging relationships bc idk there's not anything purposefully written with romantic intent, Scorbus, at least not yet, but i am always down for some scorbus u feel me, but still kinda scorbus, family troubles, i just rly appreciate affectionate bffs, if i did write them together then it would be much later, like budding scorbus, like girls say ily and hug each other aLL THE TIME, not yet anyway i guess, nothing like majorly awful but like people drifting apart u feel me, so yeah affectionate bffs nothing romantic, they're not in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2017-02-05
Packaged: 2018-09-22 06:31:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9588986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pineapple_fineapple/pseuds/pineapple_fineapple
Summary: "anyway im v :^((( so im going to try and redirect my mind to other things like writing random scenarios that dont have to be really long or really short or really specific just scenes of characters id like to see and they can be like 'fuck off' and thats it or be like 20,000 words who knows not me"that's what i wrote before i wrote this so that's what it is, which is basically scenes from a book i'd like to be written that hasn't been yet. basically just a lot of scenes in a book without it actually being strung together in chronological order and without background history or information :^) i wrote most of these at night or early afternoon with tea





	

**Author's Note:**

> hey this is what i wish would happen in a book written by jk rowling :^)

anyway im v :^((((((((( so im going to try and direct my mind to other things like writing random scenarios that dont have to be really long or really short or really specific just scenes of characters id like to see and they can be like "fuck off" and thats it or be like 20,000 words who knows not me

~0~

Scorpius sighed theatrically, making a show of melting his face into his hands at the table. Rose scoffed and batted his shoulder with The Daily Prophet.

"You don't _have_ to be here, you know. Albus only asked because he didn't want you to sit in the library moaning and drowning in self-pity for yet another day," she said primly, and opened the paper to see what new trash had been posted. Scorpius slid his fingers apart to peer at her disapprovingly.

"You know, Rosie, just when things start getting as pretty as I think they could be," he started, making her glance at him out the corner of her eye with a raised eyebrow. "You come in with sweet tones and soft words and ruin everything."

Albus disguised a laugh from across him by taking another bite of his pancakes. Rose rolled her eyes and took another sip of her tea.

"Thank you, Scorpius. How kind of you to notice, it's only taken you six years." Scorpius huffed out a laugh and sat up again, taking a teacup from the middle of the table and adding cream.

"So now that you've rescued me from my own, self-inflicted demise, update me," Scorpius said, reaching across and nudging Albus's elbow. Albus looked up from his pancakes and furrowed his eyebrows.

"Update you about what?" he asked, feigning puzzlement and going back to his extremely fascinating shortstack. He'd be damned if fifteen minutes into breakfast he'd start unloading all his troubles onto his best friend. Scorpius was having his own issues, and the last thing Albus wanted was to feel like even more of a drag-along.

Scorpius followed Rose's example and rolled his eyes, scoffing.

"Albus, Jesus, it's not like swimming in self-pity made me forget /everything/ else. You know what I mean, just tell me." Albus felt another nudge to his elbow, this time more insistent. He rolled his eyes up to see Scorpius watching him seriously.

Goddammit.

Albus sighed and paused.

"It's not like anything major happened, just--Mum's still being Mum," he mumbled, taking a quick swig of orange juice to try and wash down the lump building in his throat. Scorpius's eyes softened, and his lips tightened into a frown.

"Shocker, there," he said, lifting his hand off the table to squeeze Albus's arm sympathetically. The thing about Scorpius that Albus had immediately noticed (and appreciated) when he first met him was how honest he was. His sympathy oozed sincerity, but not pity, and only ever made Albus feel better instead of like he shouldn't have said anything. If Scorpius didn't like something, he said so. Nicely, unless it violated something he felt important. If someone asked his opinion, he gave it. Nicely, unless it violated something he felt important. Scorpius always made an effort to put people at ease, and keep the peace, unless it violated something he felt important, as was the rule with everything he did. After six years of having Scorpius Malfoy be his best friend, the one, best word to describe him that Albus could think of was honest, or genuine.

Because of this, Scorpius and Rose either got along beautifully or fought, since they both held such strong beliefs and refused to stand down in the face of something they believed in being defaced. Albus loved that about them.

Rose nodded in agreement with Scorpius's sentiment.

"Dad's sent letters talking about how different she's been lately. When they all last got together for dinner, Aunt Ginny was snippy and 'barking', as Dad put it. Mum's not said much different, but was a bit more sympathetic. She said she knows something's obviously wrong, but when she talked to your dad, he claimed it was just stress," she said, nodding to Albus with a much gentler expression than what she'd graced Scorpius with moments earlier. Albus said nothing and nodded.

Jesus, any day now he'd do like Scorpius and lock himself in the library to marinate in his own head.

"Well, in any case, you know you can always come around if you need to. Door's always open," Scorpius said, pulling his arm back to his side to butter a roll. Albus's lips tugged up at that. He hadn't been over in ages. Too tied up in everything else, he realized guiltily. Too tied up to go see one of his best friends, how wonderful of him.

"Oh, and Mum wanted me to relay to you that she feels you're ignoring her and if you don't like her tea that much, just say so." Albus laughed before he thought to stop it. Yet another thing to feel guilty about. Astoria was quick-witted and intelligent, with a heart as warm as her spiced tea she always made. A sobering thought was how right now, she was more motherly than his own.

He needed to see her soon.

"Tell her I'll make seeing her a top priority," he said, and finished off his last bite. Scorpius watched him a moment before nodding approvingly.

"She might can pencil you in. She's been so busy having tea with everyone else, you know," Scorpius quipped with a warm smile. Rose let out a light huff of amusement and went back to criticizing The Daily Prophet, pointing out ridiculous articles to her friends throughout the rest of breakfast with Scorpius scoffing at Rita's ever-present overuse of adjectives.

-0-

Coffee with Rose and Scorpius on Sunday mornings had become a steady constant over the years. Surprisingly, it'd started with Albus. He'd always thought that from another's view, it'd seem like Scorpius would be the 12 year old to sit and drink coffee with The Adults, or Rose, who had never been a child, even when she was one. But Albus had sat and drank coffee with his father on numerous occasions. Mostly on his father's time, since he spent nearly all of it at the Ministry. Albus would sit and wait for the unmistakable sound of Harry apparating into their living room in the quiet hours of the morning, and slip out of bed to go downstairs and make a pot of coffee for them. It'd always been hard for Harry to go to sleep. Especially after late nights such as those, where he'd been out roaming the globe for the better part of the night and running after every potential possible threat the Ministry sent him after. It was even harder for him when they had him deal with the aftermath.

Albus hated it.

He was interrupted from his reverie by Scorpius asking what he did his paper on for Binns.

"Oh, yes, I've been wondering too. Been meaning to ask you," Rose piped up, setting her spoon into her bowl to lean towards Albus.

"You should do it over the Second Wizarding War," said Scorpius, smiling. Rose barely paid him enough mind to lightly smack him. Albus scoffed and rolled his eyes, smiling.

"Oh, yeah, Binns would love that," he said. Scorpius laughed and nodded.

"So would every other teacher, student, and their pet." Rose rolled her eyes good-naturedly and directed the conversation back to the task at hand. Albus sighed with an extra flair for the dramatic and leaned back.

"I've honestly paid it no attention at all." Scorpius laughed and Rose cut her eyes to her blond, far-too-laid-back-for-her-liking friend.

"It's not funny! Not to sound like a hard-ass, but really, you do only have a couple days left," she said primly and gripped her coffee mug a tad tighter than usual. Scorpius waved her off and looked back to Albus.

"Alright, maybe not over your ridiculously popular father." Albus nodded. He really hadn't thought about it. It'd barely crossed his mind, what with everything else going on, and he figured he could be cut a bit of slack. Apparently, Rose thought otherwise. He nodded towards his cousin.

"Alright, well since I'm obviously falling far behind, perhaps you could throw some ideas my way," he said a bit too hopefully. Rose narrowed her eyes.

"It's not my responsibility to pick you up every time you fall behind," she said and turned away to ignore him. She sat still for a whopping twenty seconds before silently reaching into her bag and pulling out parchment. Albus smiled over at Scorpius and raised his eyebrows. Scorpius ignored him completely.

"Since you've managed to ignore yet another important assignment, I suppose I'll save you again, seeing as I'll get nothing but absolute hell from our family if I don't."

"Except from Aunt Hermione, she'd applaud you," Albus pointed out. Rose's lips twitched up.

"Because she is a smart woman, that's why," she said, and spread out her papers with much less tension than a minute ago.

"Okay, so what are some historic points that actually hold your interest?"

-0-

Rose always somehow made things so much simpler than they had to be for Albus, in more areas than just academic. Like when his parents had first started drifting apart. Albus had come to her room at 2:30 in the morning, all teary eyes and tight throat, and she'd offered not much more than a couple sentences.

"People fall out of love, Albus. But _you_ will feel better when _they_ do. Marriage may not be involved in that."

And though it'd felt cold and stinging at the time---it had helped. And she had been right. Almost annoyingly so. As usual. People do fall out of love, and people stay together for the sole purpose of keeping things as they are, which only makes things worse since change is exactly what's needed. Rose told Albus this on a night in November, when the days and nights were starting to get equally chilly, in more ways than one. He'd seen with his own eyes the exact moment things stayed permanently changed between Harry and Ginny, and it'd clicked all at once. He'd been coming downstairs to ask his father's help with a section in his potions books (exactly what was the purpose of trying to crush this bean that was supposedly un-crushable, yet this book was telling him to take it and bash it repeatedly for exactly 30 seconds. What was this supposed to accomplish? He really needed Scorpius's father's help, but he figured he was preoccupied enough helping his own son) and heard the tail end of one of their age-old arguments. He figured since it was nearly over, he'd wait it out by the stairs, when he'd heard his father's voice after Ginny's tirade.

"Ginny, I'm tired." Albus's attention caught on this one, and he slowly moved to see into the kitchen better. Ginny had frozen by the counter and stared at her husband, who stared right back.

"I don't know how to fix it. I don't, I've tried, and nothing satisfies you. I'm tired. And I'm sorry that what I'm doing isn't good enough, I really am. But I think the problem isn't me, or you, or anything here." Harry reached out a hand. Ginny didn't. "It's what isn't. You don't love me anymore, and I don't think I love you the same way I used to." Albus couldn't look away. Like when you see a train wreck. Ginny's face was stone; though her eyes were red.

"It's just---what it is. Nothing is wrong with either of us. There's just---" Albus watched his father struggle to word what he was trying so hard to get across.

"Nothing where there should be something. You know?" He finished, much more quietly than he'd started. Ginny's resolve stayed solid; until it crumbled all at once. Her face, once smooth and white and beautiful, now blotchy and swollen and red. Harry moved across the counter to hold her hands. She allowed it. She swallowed sobs she didn't want her children to hear, or her husband to see, and fell apart, all on their kitchen counter.

Albus thought about it every time he ate there.

-0-

Though things still weren't smooth again, and Harry and Ginny thought none of their children knew, Albus thought he was managing alright, honestly. He'd seen the moment everything changed and yet everything had stayed the same, more or less. Harry and Ginny had taken turns sitting their children down and explaining that yes, they'd hit a rough spot, but things were okay and they were on the same page. Which was, technically, true. Maybe not okay, but they were on the same page and weren't tiptoeing around their problems anymore to try and maintain the peace.

Sometimes Albus wished they'd just get it over with and let them all move on.

Other times, he wished they'd stop being so selfish and think of someone besides themselves, like their children and the rest of their family, which was so tightly knit and supportive and they were ripping it all apart. Holidays wouldn't be the same, birthday parties would be doubled, celebrated twice at each parent's house, and they were just making everything much more difficult than it had to be, just because things weren't like they were when they were 17 and without responsibility, and the second things got hard they had to dump it onto everyone else.

When he'd told Scorpius all this, his best friend had stayed silent and thoughtful the whole time and eventually decided that Albus got his bitterness from his father. Albus stared, surprised, and a little offended, that Scorpius had said something so lighthearted after Albus's utter mess of soul-baring. And then he'd laughed. And he'd laughed some more, partly hysteric, partly out of relief of finally letting out all he'd felt and being met with nothing but Scorpius's wonderfully refreshing and blunt lack of judgement. That'd been one of the times Albus had felt it most when he'd told Scorpius he loved him. Scorpius hugged him and rubbed his back while he cried.

"I wish my family was exactly like the rest of the world wants it to be," he'd confessed later after he'd calmed down. He felt Scorpius nod against him.

"Yeah, me too. It'd make Christmas a lot more wonderful. More magazine-worthy desserts and gathering around the fire." Albus felt amusement bubble in his chest.

"Astoria tries to do that, anyway," he said. Scorpius laughed. "True, but Ginny doesn't," he said, not unkindly. Albus sobered at that. A comfortable silence grew between them, each focused on their own thoughts.

"Dad does," he said eventually. He felt Scorpius's head drop against the back of the sofa. "Yeah, I know," he said quietly. "...Harry tries a lot."

It was both easier and harder for Albus to sleep that night. It was definitely harder getting up. Scorpius made him some coffee and told him to go for a walk and stop being dramatic.

Albus had never appreciated him so much.

-0-


End file.
